Ricerc@Sapienza

“Ours is an economically oriented age. In earlier times, word-view was more important. Today, nobody can exist without considering economics: we are concerned with economic form. (..) Economic form arises out of function and material. Study of material naturally precedes understanding of function.”
(J.Albers, Teaching Form Through Practice, 1928)

This paper discusses the role of constitutive modelling in the context of modern sustainability-driven geotechnical engineering. The necessary definitions and fundamental relations among the elements characterising sustainability in civil and geotechnical engineering are first provided, based on the available scientific literature, to then introduce the key topic here discussed by some examples, characterised by increasing level of complexity in terms of constitutive modelling assumptions.

The hyperlithiated species Lik+1Fk (k=1, 2, 3, and 4) have been studied by quantum mechanical (QM) methods. Different structures have been localized for each molecule by the CBS-QB3 composite method: all the isomers show superalkali properties and strong tendency to donate an electron to carbon dioxide forming stable Lik+1Fk … CO2 complexes. With the aim to find molecular systems able to stabilize superalkalis, geometries of complexes between superalkalis and pyridine and superalkalis and graphene surfaces doped with a pyridinic vacancy were calculated.

Architecture is above all structure: the organisation and relationship between parts existing within a stable system of references. Architectural form possesses the vividness of a completed sign, the clarity of a closed gesture: a completeness that, nonetheless, accepting change only with great difficulty, is able to repel the inexorable flow of life. Change, in fact, is the basic state of the human condition.

Fluorinated Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (FRTILs) are a branch of ionic liquids that is the object of growing interest for a wide range of potential applications, due to the synergic combination of specifically ionic features and those properties that stem from fluorous tails. So far limited experimental work exists on the micro- and mesoscopic structural organization in this class of compounds. Such a work is however necessary to fully understand morphological details at atomistic level that would have strong implications in terms of bulk properties.

Protic ionic liquids (PIL) were prepared from a super-strong base 1,7-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) and super-strong acids, trifluoromethane sulfonic acid (TfOH), and (trifluoromethanesulfonyl)-(nonafluorobutylsulfonyl)imide, (IM14H), ([DBUH][TfO] and [DBUH][IM14], respectively; the latter for the first time) and their chemical and physical properties and structural features have been explored using a synergy of experimental and computational tools.

We explore the structure of two ionic liquids based on the choline cation and the monoanion
of the maleic acid. We consider two isomers of the anion (H-maleate, the cis-isomer and H-fumarate,
the trans-isomer) having different physical chemical properties. H-maleate assumes a closed structure
and forms a strong intramolecular hydrogen bond whereas H-fumarate has an open structure.
X-ray diffraction, infrared and Raman spectroscopy and molecular dynamics have been used

In this article the scientific activity carried out on stemarane diterpenes and diterpenoids, isolated over the world from various natural sources, was reviewed. The structure elucidation of stemarane diterpenes and diterpenoids was reported, in addition to their biogenesis and biosynthesis. Stemarane diterpenes and diterpenoids biotransformations and biological activity was also taken into account. Finally the work leading to the synthesis and enantiosynthesis of stemarane diterpenes and diterpenoids was described.

The outcome of an epidemic is closely related to the network of interactions between individuals. Likewise, protein functions depend on the 3D arrangement of their residues and the underlying energetic interaction network. Borrowing ideas from the theoretical framework that has been developed to address the spreading of real diseases, we study for the first time the diffusion of a fictitious epidemic inside the protein nonbonded interaction network, aiming to study network features and properties.